BRUSSELS – On Thursday, the EU Court of Justice, Europe’s top court, ruled in favor of Intel (NASDAQ: INTC), ending a nearly two-decade-long fight between the U.S. chipmaker and EU regulators who had said it had tried to thwart a rival.
“The Court of Justice dismisses the Commission’s appeal, thereby upholding the judgment of the General Court,” the court said.
The European Commission had fined Intel for giving rebates to computer makers Dell Technologies (NYSE: DELL), Hewlett-Packard (NYSE: HPE), NEC, and Lenovo for buying most of their chips from Intel, which regulators said was an attempt to block Advanced Micro Devices (NASDAQ: AMD).
Regulators generally oppose rebates offered by dominant companies because they fear they may be anti-competitive, while companies say enforcers must prove discounts have anticompetitive effects before companies are sanctioned.
EU regulators had initially fined Intel (NASDAQ: INTC) 1.06 billion euros ($1.14 billion) but a lower tribunal scrapped that.
Intel’s case was boosted earlier this year when an adviser to the court said regulators had not properly performed an economic analysis.
($1 = 0.9285 euros)
(Source: ReutersReuters)
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Mary Lee is a freelance writer and journalist based in Toronto, Canada. She holds an M.S. degree in business and economic journalism from Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism in New York and a certificate in digital marketing from the University of Toronto. Read Full Bio
